In using a payphone, a user has to deposit coins into the payphone and once the call ends, the remaining coins will be returned through a coin return basket or chute. The user may then pick up the returned coins.
There are in general two different types of coin returning manners. The first one involves forming a cavity or a basket inside the payphone which is accessible by the user and the coins to be returned are dropped into the basket and temporarily held therein (which will be referred to as holding type hereinafter). An example is shown in FIG. 6 of the attached drawings. A disadvantage of this way is that there has to be a large opening A provided on the payphone casing, which is closable by a lid B, in order to provide the payphone user with an access to the coin basket. However, such a structure provides burglars with a chance to damage the payphone casing by disposing an explosive material into the payphone casing via the opening so as to steal coins that were deposited into the payphone by the previous users.
The second way, which will be referred to as non-holding type herein, is to provide a chute inside the payphone which directly leads to outside the payphone and the returned coins will be transferred directly out of the payphone casing, no temporarily holding inside the payphone being needed. Thus there is no temporary holding space formed inside the payphone casing and no large opening for the user's access to the coins is needed.
The conventional designs, however, are not compatible with or convertible between each other so that the manufacturer of the payphone has to decide which of these two designs is to be adapted. Once adapted, it is in general impossible to change to the other one. This may cause certain problem and inconvenience in manufacturing the payphones.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a coin return chute structure which is convertible between the holding type and the non-holding type so as to facilitate the design/manufacture of the payphone.